Tim Pickstone

Last night was the last “Full Council’ of Bury MBC for the current Municipal Year. Full Council is the only meeting that brings together all 51 councillors across the borough.

The last meeting of the municipal year has the bad habit of descending into a pre-election slanging match between the Labour and Conservative Party’s, with the Lib Dem’s trying to stay focussed on important issues that are affecting real people!

This being said, and aside from the slanging match, there were a number of important decisions approved by the Council:

- We agreed the draft questions that will be put to the vote on the “Mayoral Referendum” that Bury has been forced to have on 3 July 2008. For the next month people will be able to say whether the proposed question (either that we have the democratic system we have now, or one where an Election Mayor has al the powers for her/himself!) are the right ones, before these are finally agreed next month.

- We agreed the “Bury Plan” for 2008-2009 - this is the planning document that brings together all the partners in ‘Team Bury’ (the Council, NHS, police, fire, business, voluntary sector etc).

- We agreed that all Councillors will undertake CRB (Criminal Record Bureau) checks. This is to ensure compliance with vulnerable children and corporate parenting legislation, and is I suppose understandable. I voted in favour, because Government tells us we “have to”, but personally I believe there are severe quesions to be asked about the CRB system, and how useful it is in what it is meant to do (protecting vulnerable children and adults).

There were also some interesting questions asked from members of the Liberal Democrat group, including two from me.

My first question asked the Council Leadership if they would consider doing what Essex County Council is doing, which is looking as keeping open some of the post offices the Government is closing by using them for council services as well as postal ones. The reply was excellent, as apparently early thought is being given to how council offices could be used to alleviate the problems caused by closed post offices. I then asked if the Council would join me in condemning our two local Labour MPs for voting FOR post office closures (nine will close in Bury, to be determined) - there was embarrassed silence from Labour councillors!

My second question related to the excellent progress that is being made looking at the future of Prestwich Village area with the “URBED” study which has been commissioned by the Council after lobbying from the Lib Dem team in Prestwich. I sought assurances from the Council Leadership that a presentation on the findings of the study are made to the full Executive Committee of the Council. I know its just about Prestwich, but I think that its important that the Council pays as much attention to our part of the borough, as it does to Bury Town Centre!

My Lib Dem colleagues asked some good questions to: Vic D’Albert asked about the continuing absence of an Alley Gating Policy (as a follow up to the same question from me last October!), Richard Baum asked whether plans for Butterstlye Children’s Centre are on track (which they are); Ann Garner asked about extra refuse collection provision for the Jewish Community just before Passover next month (which there will be); Donal O’Hanlon asked about letter notices in Prestwich and Steve Wright asked why the Conservatives hadn’t fulfilled their manifesto pledge from last year to undertake a Climage Change study on all Council buildings!

Any questions, please ask. The papers for the meeting can be downloaded here.

Tim

Its five years since the start of our involvment with the war in Iraq.

Nick Harvey MP - the Liberal Democrat Shadow Defence Minister marks the occasion with this video.

Britain only invaded Iraq because MPs voted for it. Asked on 18th March 2003 to support Tony Blair’s motion for military action against Iraq, Labour and Conservative MPs lined up to vote “aye”.

Both the Conservative and Labour frontbenches in the House of Commons supported the war. The Conservatives even argued that the Government wasn’t being tough enough.

Five years on, over 170 British servicemen and women have been killed in Iraq, along with hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians. British taxpayers have poured £6.5 billion into the conflict, and the Conservatives are trying to rewrite history by now calling for an inquiry.

Why not visit the special website  -  it’s time to hold the politicians who took us to war to account!

Last night was the last meeting of the Council’s Executive Committee for the year. The Executive brings together the eight “portfolio holders” on the Council, together with the two leaders of opposition parties, including me from the Lib Dems. The meeting had an increadably long agenda - 31 items! - so I’ll only report on the most interesting here. The full agenda, together with all the papers can be found here.

Annual Audit and Inspection Letter
We received our annual report from the Audit Commission on well Bury is performing. The headline is that Bury has moved from being a 3* authority, to only 2*. Obviously this is regrettable, the tipping point apparently was a move down in ratings for adult care services.

Phase III Children’s Centres
We received a report on the implementation of Phase III of the Children’s Centre programme. The good news here is that it looks likely that Holyrood Ward (where we live) is going to see a Centre in this final phase (though this hasn’t been confirmed yet). Holyrood Ward was identified as one of two areas where a new centre might be appropriate (the other being Stand/Outwood), though this will be confirmed in a later report.

Learning Review in Primary and Secondary Schools
We received a fairly vague report about the reviews of learning in both primary and secondary schools. I made the point that it was a concern that the report on the review was lacking in susbstance. Reviewing schools can be a hugely contraversial issue (as we learned a few years ago in Prestwich), and its important that the review gets off on the right footing.

Millgate Shopping Centre Design Framework
We received an excellent presentation on the future planning and design framework for the Millage Centre in Bury Town Centre. With the development of the new “rock triange” area (with its new Debenhams and M&S) there is a concern that we need to improve the Millage Centre, and there are a number of excellent ideas to imporve the facilities and public spaces in the area. Hopefully the owners of the centre will bring forward definite plans to make this happen.

Local Area Partnerships Review
We received the conclusions of the review of Local Area Partnerships. The recommendations are “interim”, which is good as they don’t really say anything much! Hopefully the final stages of the review, in Autumn 2008 will come up with better ways of how LAPs can be used to make sure that local people have a real say in local services. I confirmed that the (in my view) ridiculous idea of renaming the Local Area Partnerships as “Team Prestwich” (etc) has been dropped - which it has (for now).

Compulsory Purchase of the Radcliffe Riverside School site
The Executive Committee took the decision, which I fully support, to proceed with the compulsory purchase of the Radcliffe Riverside School site. The delays of proceeding with this much needed new high school for Radcliffe seem to have been endless this year, and anything that gets building work on the school going is to be welcomed. Hopefully the Order will get the owners of the land talking and wont need to be used in the end.

Obviously there was lots more discussed at the meeting, but these were the hightlights. If you have any questions on these or the other items don’t hesitate to ask!

thanks
Tim

Tuesday night was the regular meeting of Prestwich Local Area Partnership. This is the meeting that brings together your local councillors, key partners like the police, fire and NHS and appointed community representatives. The meeting, which took place in Sedgley Park School on King’s Road, was also very well attended by members of the public.

A number of important issues were considered:

Grants

The Local Area Partnership is given some relatively small amounts of money to grant to local groups and projects. As this was the last meeting of the year a large number of grants were considered by the meeting which I’ve listed in a separate posting below. The variety of the bids and projects was really impressive this year - its excellent that the Area Partnership can support so many excellent community initiatives.

Three of the largest grants across the whole of Prestwich were for our area (Holyrood Ward), all relating to addressing the issue of lack of play facilities (see separate posting).

Updates from Partner Organisations

The Partnership received updates from partner organisations like the Police, Fire and NHS. The new Divisional Commander of Bury was also present at the meeting, as were representatives of the local Magistrates.

Issues from Members of the Public

An “open forum” is provided for members of the public to raise issues of concern. There was significant discussion about the major nuisance caused by illegal use of quadbikes - not just in streets but also in the Prestwich Forest Park area. The Partnership and the Police agreed to take these matters forward. Some money is remaining in the budget for this year we agreed that we would look to see if a project on this issue was possible.

It was good to hear some good news from residents of Highfield Road, who continue to suffer from non-residents parking in this narrow street. Further meetings are being held, but some of the simple measures (like moving a sign and talking to business owners) have been having some effect.

Prestwich Village Strategy

The main item at the Area Partnership was a presentation from the planning consultants that the Council have appointed to look at the future of the Prestwich Village area. Your local Lib Dem Councillors have been campaigning for years to this work to happen and its great that it has finally started.

The planners (the company is called “URBED”) gave a fascinating presentation about Prestwich Village, the problems it faces and also the many good things we have in our favour. The area was compared to other simiar “villages in the city” that are a similar distance to Manchester City Centre (Sale, Chorlton, Didsbury) and the company have been looking at how they have dealt with similar issues.

There are some excellent ideas being brought forward which are exciting and challenging.

URBED are holding a number of events over the coming months and a major consultation over the coming months. You can find out more about about the URBED study at their special website . A special consultation workshop - open to all - is on 13 March 2008 - check the website for more details.

Please get in touch if you need to know more about any of the above.

Tim